1957

1970

1980

1994
1984
PROPOSED
EXTENSION

1994

1970: Leslie Martin and David Owers

1980: Leslie Martin and Robert Weighton
1984: Leslie Martin and Ivor Richards
1994: Bland, Brown & Cole

KETTLES YARD
Kettles Yard is one of Cambridges most popular cultural venues. Established by Jim Ede in 1957, its collection displays
an extensive range of modern art. Likewise its buildings are an eclectic mix of old and new, with Leslie Martins
celebrated extensions. This year Jamie Fobert has been appointed as the architect for the next phase.

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Kettles Yard was once four tumbledown cottages in Cambridge.

Today it is one of the Citys most treasured cultural venues. In a city
surrounded by the formal grandeur of collegiate and ecclesiastical
architecture, this curious collection of buildings holds its own as
a must see destination. As a place it has become as diverse and
idiosyncratic as the collection it contains; modest, yet sophisticated,
and central to the cultural activities of the local community.
Not simply an art gallery, Kettles Yard is many things. Established
by Jim Ede in 1957, it has had a long and varied life. As the onetime home of the former Tate curator, the converted cottages were
always open to students and casual visitors, who could meet with
Ede in a place that he described as a nursery to the visual arts and
an introduction to the formal art gallery like Tate or Fitzwilliam.
Keen to share his internationally renowned private collection,
Ede eventually presented it as a gift to the university in 1967,
who very keenly took on his legacy. Since then four subsequent
phases of expansion have seen home become collection, gallery
become theatre, and art space become classroom; a process that
many feared would destroy its charm, but throughout which, Edes
sensibilities have been maintained.

Soon after accepting the stewardship of Kettles Yard, a successful

appeal for funds allowed the university to build a new extension
designed by Leslie Martin and David Owers; a significant phase of
expansion (two phases rolled into one through the generous support
of the Arts Council) that provided an additional 390sqm of display
space. As featured in The Architectural Review in February 1971,
the designers preoccupation focused on how the space and light
of the new could add to the progression through Edes original
home, maintaining the ambience of the original 150sqm house
throughout a new 540sqm venue. Through careful planning and
exploiting interconnected levels, the extension links new with old
at an upper level, continuing the subtle sequence spaces through
a series of descending levels and increasing volumes. Daylighting
also progresses with the domestic windows of the old, leading to the
baffled top light of the long apertures that run the full length of the
extensions rough plaster ceilings. With this language of incremental
expansion, Martins scheme continued to migrate across the gently
falling site with two lower terraced spaces in 1980 and 1984,
completed by Bland, Brown and Coles arcaded extension along
Castle Street in 1994.

sectional perspective of Leslie Martin and David Owers 1970 extension

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site plan showing 1970 extension

new links with old with a series of descending levels and increasing volumes

Main image: the 1970

extension looking
away from the
existing house.
Below: the upper
level looking towards
the existing house.
Bottom: the entrance
courtyard following
Bland, Brown
and Coles 1994
extension.

1957

1970

1980

1994
1984
PROPOSED
EXTENSION

1994

part plan of Bland, Brown and Coles 1994 extension

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The search for an architect for the next phase of development began
in January this year when Michael Harrison, Kettles Yard director
since 1992, was advised by management committee member Eric
Parry to run an RIBA design competition. New education facilities
were required to provide space for the annual programme of 375
education sessions currently accommodated in a rather cramped
education room at the centre of the plan that could only hold half
a class at a time. Having reprocessed the two remaining shop fronts
from tenants, sufficient space was made available to also include
a new environmentally stable archive for its painting collection
(that in the spirit of Ede is still offered on long loans to University
students to take home), a caf (to attract new visitors and give
regulars a place to inhabit), and a more formal seminar space (for
life long learning, lectures and so on).
Having invited 16 or so practices to submit examples of their work,
Jamie Fobert was chosen from a high calibre shortlist that included
De Rijke Marsh Morgan, Caruso St John, Stanton Williams, Ushida
Findlay and 5th Studio. (A success that was shortly followed by his
appointment to design the new extension at Tate St Ives.) Having
spent nine years with David Chipperfield before establishing
his own practice nine years ago, Jamie Fobert is emerging as an
architect of distinction. By focusing on the essence of architectural
space and the practicality of process led detailing, he avoids the
superfluous gestures that distract so many others. As demonstrated
in the Anderson House (AR April 2004), and as qualified by his
admiration for the work of Morandi and Hammershoi, Foberts work
returns our attention to the potency of simple forms and volumes,
and when shaping interior spaces reminds us of the importance
of making decent rooms. As such, Harrison recalls how Fobert,
without making any detailed proposals, had particularly impressed
the jury with his reading of Kettles Yard, its art and the evolution
of its architecture. In displaying and sharing its collection, daylight
is the keynote of Kettles Yard a place of physical and spiritual

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When discussing the nature and form

of internal spaces, Jamie Fobert returns
to Morandi and Hammershoi for his
inspiration.
Opposite (clockwise from top left):
the new extension as roofscape; views
through the new education suite; section
through first floor level caf; a new stair
will open-up views to the church (plan
inset).

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Foberts new extension provides four

new levels of accommodation behind
two existing Victorian shop fronts.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

basement archive
accessible lavatory
new stair
education room
store
caf
multi-purpose seminar room

1
2
4

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basement level plan

ground floor level plan

first floor level plan

second floor level plan

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By extending Bland, Brown and

Coles sandstone fenestration,
Foberts intervention will
significantly improve the quality of
the Kettles Yard street frontage.

illumination and Foberts understanding of this subtlety was key

to his success. It was also important that his intervention was not
an extension that melded anonymously into the existing. Having
chosen Fobert, Harrison wanted to develop a proposal that was
distinct from the previous phases and as of its time as the original
extension by Martin. Since being chosen, Fobert has developed a
scheme that achieves these aspirations, working with large-scale
models and free-hand sketches, to resolve a tight cluster of internal
and external forms that will sit quietly behind the retained Castle
Street Victorian facade. A detailed and costed proposal that will
help secure the sustainable future of this wonderful place. For
Fobert this is not a project to design a new building, but rather in
the same way that Morandi and Hammershoi focused on the same

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long section from Leslie Martin to Jamie Fobert

objects for many years, he is adjusting and adding to a place that

already exists. His intervention will simply be a new composition
of the same place; a project that has been evolving over a number
of decades.
So, forty years on it is time once again to seek funds for the next
phase. Kettles Yard has been well supported over the years by
many friends and organisations such as the Arts Council England,
the Arts and Humanities Research Board, and the Henry Moore
Foundation. With Foberts new vision for the site, it is hoped that
fundraising will be as successful as it was in the 1960s. Today, 2.2
million is needed to help write the next chapter; a chapter that will
sustain Jim Edes original vision that Kettles Yard would somehow
represent, a continuing way of life. ROB GREGORY